11/25/15 11/25/15 [captioning made possible by democracy now!] amy: from pacifica this is , democracy now1 >> the officer was on the scene for less than 30 seconds. to begin shooting approximately six seconds out of getting out of his vehicle. amy: 16 shots. 30 seconds. 400 days to indict for first degree murder. today we look at the case of 17 year old laquan mcdonald, gunned

down by chicago police officer jason van dyke. roughly seven other officers are also at the scene. the number helped laquan? zero. the video was released yesterday. the naumann and dies -- the indictment announced just before. really 1000 black lives matter protesters took to the streets last night after alleged white shot five.s >> black lives matter exists to fight dangerous anti-black rhetoric and criminalization of black people. because of that, we are recommitting our occupation of the fourth precinct until we get justice. amy: police have now arrested three people in connection with the mass shooting, which took place at a protest against the police killing of unarmed

jamar clark.can we will go to minneapolis to speak with an eyewitness of the shooting of the protesters and with minneapolis congressmember keith ellison, who is calling for the release of the video of the shooting of clark. during a police raid last an officer dressed in fatigues wednesday, and carrying what appeared to be a gas-launching gun pointed his weapon at congressman ellison's own son, jeremiah. then am a showdown on the syrian border. turkey shoots down a russian warplane. all of that and more coming up. welcome to democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman. authorities in chicago, illinois , have released police dashboard camera video showing a chicago police officer fatally shooting 17-year-old laquan mcdonald. it was more than year ago when officer jason van dyke shot the teenager 16 times. but it was only yesterday that

van dyke was charged with murder one day before the city faced a , court-ordered deadline to release the shooting video. police had claimed laquan mcdonald lunged at van dyke with a small knife. but the newly released footage appears to show van dyke jumping out of a police car, pointing his gun at mcdonald, and opening fire when laquan is many feet away. the video shows police bullets can generally hitting mcdonald's body even after he falls to the , ground. we will have more from chicago after headlines. in minneapolis, minnesota, nearly black lives matter 1000 protesters took to the streets tuesday night after alleged white supremacists opened fire on demonstrators the night before, injuring five people. police have now arrested three people in connection with the mass shooting, which took place outside a police precinct as activists protested the police shooting of unarmed african-american jamar clark. black lives matter organizer miski noor denounced the attack

by alleged white supremacists as an act of terrorism and said by macing the protesters. quick despite earlier statements about the impending threat from white supremacists, the police maced peaceful protesters. they made disparaging comets to those of the protest instead of taking the threat seriously. we reiterate that we have zero faith in the police department's desire to keep our community safe. we reiterate that we have zero faith in this police department desire to keep our community safe. amy: we'll go to minneapolis for more on the shooting with eyewitness leslie redmond and minnesota congressmember keith ellison later in the broadcast. in washington state, western washington university suspended all classes tuesday after racist threats targeting students of color were posted on social media. the threats mentioned individual female students who say they were rebuffed in their initial attempts to seek aid from campus law enforcement.

tunisia has declared a 30-day state of emergency after at least 12 people were killed by an explosion on a bus carrying members of the presidential guard. the capital tunis is under a 9 -- 9:00 curfew. p.m. the attacks comes amid security crackdowns in belgium and france following the paris attacks that killed 130 people november 13. schools and metro stations have reopened in brussels after being shut down for four days. president obama and french president francois hollande have agreed to ramp up airstrikes against the self-proclaimed islamic state in iraq and syria following the paris attacks. as hollande visited washington, d.c., for talks with obama, french warplanes bombed isis targets near the iraqi city of mosul. emerging from the meeting, hollande pledged to press ahead with you and -- un climate talks opening monday in paris, saying they were a "beautiful symbol" after the paris attacks.

>> no one has asked us to suspend, delay it, because in fact, it is the most beautiful symbol we can imagine after the tragedy in paris and st. denis. this meeting is where the world decides for itself in favor of life, always life, the lives of our children, the small children of the planet. amy: in the wake of the paris attacks, french authorities canceled mass march against the mass march against climate change scheduled for this sunday. 200,000 people were expected to take to the streets to call for a global view to avert climate catastrophe. on tuesday night, in paris, hundreds gathered in an emergency meeting to oppose against france's state of emergency, which prohibit demonstrations for three months. the attendees vowed to protest during the u.n. climate talks -- known as the conference of the

parties or cop. one of the organizers, christine poupin, spoke to democracy now ! >> my name is christine and i am the spokesperson for the new anti-capitalist party. the reason for this meeting tonight was to get a first response to the state of from urgency, in particular to assert our capacity to resist and reflect a response to the heavyweight imposed both by terrorism and the state of emergency. talking about cop, this cop all have no positive outcome on the climate because it will make no positive decision to limit the use of fossil fuels, but worse, it will also promote false solutions that will heavily burden of people. tune in on monday as democracy now! begins our two weeks of live coverage from the paris climate talks. russian president vladimir putin has condemned turkey's downing of a russian plane near the syrian border, saying it was "like a stab in the back delivered by the accomplices of terrorists." turkey said it shot down the

plane after warning the russian pilots they were in turkish airspace. but russia says the plane did not stray from syrian airspace. the incident marks one of the most serious publicly acknowledged clashes between a nato member country and russia in half a century. we'll have more with vijay prashad later in the broadcast. in liberia, a 15-year-old boy has died of ebola, months after the country was deemed ebola-free. on monday, a panel of global health experts condemned the world health organization for its sluggish response to the outbreak last year, saying thousands of deaths that could have been prevented. the missouri supreme court has overturned the murder convictions of death-row prisoner reggie clemons. clemons was one of three men african-american men convicted for the rape and murder of two white sisters in on tuesday, the 1991. court vacated his convictions, saying the state had deliberately suppressed evidence

clemons was beaten by police and coerced into confessing. the state of missouri now has 60 days to decide whether to pursue a retrial. a group of 14 human rights activists from witness against torture are setting up a protest encampment outside the u.s. naval base at guantanamo bay, cuba. tomorrow on thanksgiving day, the activists plan to fast in solidarity with guantanamo prisoners. they are demanding the obama administration deliver on its promise to finally close the prison. the u.s. military is set to announce today that a series of errors led to the u.s. bombing of a doctors without borders hospital that killed at least 30 people in afghanistan last month. on october 3, a u.s. gunship passed five times over the hospital, bombing it repeatedly over more than an hour, and continuing to bomb despite multiple frantic calls by staff to u.s. officials telling them they were hitting a hospital. doctors without borders has said the attack was an apparent war crime conducted with a purpose to kill and destroy.

the group had repeatedly told the u.s. military the hospital's exact coordinates. but a military investigation has reportedly concluded the gunship crew intended to target a nearby compound and hit the hospital by mistake after relying on verbal descriptions of the location from u.s. and afghan special forces on the ground. it remains unclear why those forces did not tell the gunship crew they were bombing hospital. doctors without borders has called for an independent investigation. and media activist and community internet pioneer wally bowen has died at the age of 63. bowen was the founder of mountain area information network, a non-profit community internet service provider. he also founded wpvm, "the progressive voice in the mountains," a low-power fm community radio station in asheville, north carolina. bowen challenged the broadcast license of sinclair media, the corporation that controlled asheville's only over-the-air

television station, which bowen and others accused of partisan political programming during the 2004 election season. this is wally bowen speaking on democracy now! in 2009. >> my background is journalism, so i was 22 bridge the digital divide but create revenue for journalism, so that is what we have been moving toward all these years. five years ago, we launched wvpm , low-power fm radio station and brought democracy now! for the first time to asheville, public access tv, so we have been concentrating our efforts on creating media infrastructure that is grounded in our community and the holden to our community and not pulled in to wall street. amy: wally bowen died of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as als or lou gherig's disease, last tuesday in asheville, north carolina. and those are some of the headlines. this is democracy now, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez.

juan: welcome to all our listeners and viewers from around the country and around the world. we begin today in chicago where for the first time in three decades a police officer faces charges of first degree murder for an on-duty shooting. white police officer jason van dyke was arrested on tuesday and is being held without bail for the killing of 17-year-old laquan mcdonald, who was african-american. it was more than a year ago, on october 20, 2014, when officer van dyke shot the teenager 16 times, including multiple times in the back. police claimed mcdonald lunged at the officer with a small knife. but newly released dashcam footage showed the teenager walking away from the police officers' cars when another police car pulls up to the scene. the video, which has no sound, then appears to show officer jason van dyke jumping out of the car, pointing his gun at mcdonald, and opening fire.

the teenager's body spins as it is hit with the barrage of bullets, and then falls to the pavement where it continues to be struck by bullets. this is cook county state's alvarez talking about the indictment about what happened at the scene. grexit our investigation has determined officer van dyke was on the scene for less than 30 seconds. before he started shooting. in addition to the fact that all evidence indicates that he began shooting approximately six seconds after getting out of his vehicle. juan: officer van dyke remained on paid desk duty after the shooting until he was taken into custody on tuesday. in addition to the fatal shooting last october, officer van dyke had at least 18 -- 20 celine complaints against him which included excessive use , of force, illegal arrest and use of racial slurs. none of those complaints have led to any disciplinary action. amy: this week chicago police

superintendent jerry mccarthy also announced that he would move to fire officer dante servin, who killed 22-year-old an african american woman rekia boyd in 2012. officer servin was off-duty when he fired several shots over his shoulder into a group of people boyd was standing with near his home, striking her in the back of her head. he was charged with involuntary manslaughter, marking the first time in more than a decade that a chicago police officer was charged for a fatal shooting. but last spring in a dramatic dismissal, a judge acquitted detective servin on a legal technicality. well, for more on the deaths of laquan mcdonald and rekia boyd, we're joined in chicago by two -- barbara ransby, professor of african american studies, gender and women's studies and history at the university of illinois, chicago. we welcome you to democracy now! , professor. 16 shots, 30 seconds, 400 days to indict the police officer for first-degree murder -- all of those days he was paid.

the number of officers at the scene, it is not clear exactly from the video, but believed about seven in addition to van dyke. the number who came to laquan mcdonald's aid? none. can you talk about the indictment yesterday just before the court ordered video of the killing was released? >> yes, thank you for having me, amy, and for covering this issue. yesterday, it was really after vigils and protests and lobbying and all kinds of pressure of young people marching in the street that the city was forced to release the videotape. as you may have reported before, there was a tape and a local -- a videotape in the local burger king that has still gone missing. video.ot the dashcam at the time that it has taken for the city to come forward with this is really pretty outrageous, and that is what

activists in the city have been saying, that is what led to thousands of people protesting in the streets of chicago last night. still, a young man is in custody for those protests and we are very concerned about him him a malcolm london, along -- a young poet and activist here. i was so disturbed by that videotape, not that we haven't seen other disturbing videotapes, but the amount of callous disregard for this young man laying in the street. the police shot him so quickly, so many times, and the other police, as you pointed out, did not do anything to see if you was even still alive, kicking the knife out of his hand. the thing that strikes me, wbez just reported the other day because of the budget cuts in illinois and other priorities, chicago police department only has less than 20 of its officers

that have received crisis intervention training. it seems like that ought to be a thisity for the escalating kind of situation. it seems the police have a lot of training and how to contain protesters, but very little training and something that would be quite common, which is to de-escalate the situation were someone is intoxicated, mentally ill, or otherwise behaving irrationally. we needed a nonlethal intervention there, clearly, but it seemed to be almost too much trouble to do anything other than two shoot this child. and that is why activist are so angry. juan: i want to talk about the role of chicago mayor rahm emanuel because clearly, the mayor had said that he had not yetiously seen the video, he must have approved the $5 million settlement that was given to the family earlier this year, even before the family had filed a lawsuit.

>> absolutely. whether the mayor saw the video personally or not, someone in the mayor's office must have seen the video. they must have known the likelihood that this officer would be found culpable of murdering this child. otherwise, that size of a settlement for a cash-strapped city, as we are often told, would not have been approved. of course, we would expect a conscientious mayor to want to see such a video of this kind of killing. and given the attention that police violence has gotten across the country and given the legitimate anger of many in the african-american community, the question would be, why didn't the mayor see the video sooner? and i think that is a legitimate question. on: at a news conference tuesday, the chicago mayor rahm emanuel, also president obama's chief of staff before that, said police officer jason van dyke violated basic moral standards.

>> obviously, this case, jason van dyke violated by the standards of professionalism that comes with being a police officer, but also basic moral standards that bind our community together. jason van dyke will be judged in court ofe law -- in a law. that is how it should be. as of today, he is no longer being paid by the city of chicago, as the superintendent noted, and stripped of his police powers 10 months ago. anyone that sees this video will also make their own judgments. amy: barbara ransby, if you could explain the chronology. i mean, we are about a killing that happened over 400 days ago. the city fights to suppress the video. they give $5 billion to the family, though the family did not even sue. foiaourt, based on requests by an independent journalist, orders the video to be released.

they said today was the deadline for that release. and so yesterday, after 400 days, the entire leadership of chicago gathers, the superintendent and the mayor, and they announced that van dyke, the officer, will be indicted for first-degree murder for his reprehensible actions. he had been on the payroll all of that time. and then as they left the stage, they released the videotape. how does mayor rahm emanuel justify not having indicted -- having this officer indicted before? >> that is an excellent question. of course, i cannot answer that, but that would be my question as well. that was the question of the many, many who took to the streets in chicago last night. when the mayor and the state's attorney anita alvarez tell us that they were saddened, outraged, disturbed when they saw the video, i mean, it is

really very little very late. dr. king and others have referred to the long arc of arm of and that long justice spinning slowly. this is a very, very slow at a remotely just outcome. the real just outcome would be to have a police department that was in fact accountable, to have swift investigations and transparency, to make data available to people without having the kind of protest and lawsuits and pressures that have been necessary here to for. it really pollutes the mayor to rethink the approach. it israeli legitimate that people are calling into question the leadership of garry mccarthy, the police chief in the city. you know, we understand the

anxiousness. we understand the anger of young people in the streets. i mean, this incident should not have happened. and if it should have happened, our leadership should have had a swift and clear response and that response should have been transparent. in this case, by all indicators, is simply was not. juan: professor, could you put this in context of the ongoing and historical problems that citizens of chicago and the black community, especially, have encountered with the police? i think there was a report by truthout earlier this year the chicago police appeared to be officially undercounting the number of people killed by the police. talk about this historical problem in the city. >> there is a specific issue of undercounting and making data available, which has been an ongoing problem. but of course, chicago is the place where john birch, former police supervisor, carried out

systematic torture of young black men in the leased district, including electroshocking genitals and putting plastic bags over the heads of people that they were trying to coerce into confession . all of this has now been documented. many of his victims have been exonerated. and the fact that this could go on for over a decade in chicago suggests some very, very deep-seated issues of racism and corruption in the police department. and that has to be taken very, very seriously. that is part of a legacy that we're confronted with right now. of course, even going back to the assassination of fred hampton, the black panther party 1969r and naacp leader in where the chicago police department was implicated in his murder. there is a question of confidence, account ability, of cover-up.

but unfortunately, it is not just chicago. african-american communities around the country have been at odds with police departments that have been insensitive to black committees, having gauged in racial profiling, and of an all too quick to use lethal force against young black bodies, black and latino people in general, but black people in particular. i think that is why we have seen the black lives matter movement garners so much support and why we have seen young people and the black youth project 100 be so vigilant in exposing the kind of police abuse that we have seen here in chicago and elsewhere. so it is coming out of the his parole context, but also transcends -- this local context, but also transcends chicago. amy: the head of the chicago police has called for the firing of dante servin. we spoke to the brother of ricky of what was killed in 2012 by the off-duty chicago police detective.

cook county judge dennis porter acquitted the officer saying he should not have been charged with involuntary manslaughter. i ask rekia boyd's brother, martinez, if you should have been charged with murder. >> the judge said, it should have been murder charges put on the officer instead of involuntary manslaughter, and also said you can't be intentional and reckless at the same time. and we had second-degree murder charges on him at first, before they announced it. but at the last minute, once they found out i talked to the officer, they changed it to involuntary manslaughter to further protect him. amy: what do you mean once you talk to the officer? >> i was doing a documentary for my school. as we were shooting the documentary, he pulled up in the same car he killed my sister in. and he gets out of the car and said, who are you people?

and they said, this is ricky avoid's brother. she looked apprised and he was like, you are's brother? can i get a hug? i stared at him for a second and i embraced him. and he started with, i'm so sorry, i'm so sorry i did not mean to kill your sister, i'm so sorry your sister was innocent, but i tried to kill that mfer. ooh, i wish it was him that was dead. then he went back to, i'm so sorry, now my heart is cleared, i prayed to the three mary's across the street every day, every time i leave this alley. how can you wish somebody was dead? how can you wish somebody else's life was taken? why do you want to take some of his life off this earth? rickyhe brother of aboard, now the chicago police superintendent is saying he will move to fire dante servin, the

off-duty officer for the death kia boyd. teenager, 17-year-old laquan mcdonald, who was gunned down 400 days ago and then you still have this case of ricky avoid from 2012 the continuously come as people march in the streets, they raise her name as well as. rekia glad you mentioned boyd because it is her murder that really has galvanized enormous outrage and energy for those fighting for justice in chicago. it was another outrageous seemingly clear-cut case of reckless and brutal behavior, this time on the part of an hasduty police officer who just only recently been fired. again, very late in the game. in some ways, the activist here

have done the job of the city leadership by bringing this issue to the floor by keeping it in the forefront of public consciousness and demanding justice when those in leadership have been very reluctant to deliver it. i think we will continue to see protest in chicago and see the very passionate demand for justice for young black people, boyd laquanekia onlynald enough the one. people want to the united nations to protest the consistent abuse of young black people by chicago police department. juan: i just want to ask you quickly, the impact of these numerous, now we've had dozens, literally, videos showing these kinds of assaults by the police on african-americans, sometimes latinos as well, the impact of these videos nationwide in the national consciousness? >> it is had in or miss impact,

of course. i think one impact is trauma. those of us who have seen these videos over and over really are reminded of the days of lynching. the we charge genocide group your chicago said in the jim crow era, the rope was a symbol of lynching and today it is a police bullet. so there has been trauma, but i also think it is galvanized people who want to not only confront issues of police violence, but the larger conditions of justice -- of injustice these communities suffer in order for us to have both peace and justice. amy: barbara ransby, thank you for joining us professor of , african american studies, gender and women's studies and history at the university of illinois, chicago. director of the social justice initiative at the university of illinois. among her books "ella baker and , the black freedom movement." we go directly to minneapolis.

1000 black lives matter protesters marched last night. the night before alleged white theemacists opened fire on protesters, shooting five of them. we will speak to an eyewitness as well as minneapolis congressmember keith ellison. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: "american skin," by bruce springsteen. written in honor of comedy dlo, african immigrant in new york who was gunned down by new york police, the street crimes unit on february 4, 1999. he died in a hill of 41 police bullets. this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez.

juan: we turn now to minneapolis, minnesota, where nearly black lives matter 1000 protesters took to the streets last night after alleged white supremacists opened fire on a demonstration the night before, injuring five people. police have now arrested three men in connection with the mass shooting, which took place at a protest outside a police precinct. at least one of the gunmen was reportedly wearing a mask. all three suspects are white. authorities may treat the shooting as a hate crime. witnesses of the shooting say police took an unusually long time to respond to the attack, and then proceeded to use mace on the protesters. when activists reclaimed the streets tuesday, they vowed not to be silenced by what some call an act of domestic terrorism. this is organizer miski noor. >> despite earlier statements by police from the impending threat from white supremacists, the police maced peaceful protesters. they made disparaging comments

to those at the protest instead of taking the threat seriously. we reiterate that we have zero faith in this lease department's desire to keep our communities safe. we reiterate that we have zero faith in this police department's desire to keep our community safe will stop amy: at the time of monday evening's attack, the black lives matter protesters were gathered at an encampment outside a police precinct to protest the police killing of unarmed 24-year-old african-american jamar clark, which the justice department is now investigating. protesters were calling for the release of the video of the police killing. authorities said clark was shot in the head sunday after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. but multiple witnesses say clark was shot while handcuffed. minneapolis police officers mark ringgenberg and dustin schwarze have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation. protesters have been camped outside the 4th precinct since last week, despite a police raid last wednesday in which multiple people said the police beat them with batons, sprayed them with

mace, and hit them with marker rounds. well, for more we go to minneapolis, minnesota, to speak with an eyewitness to monday evening's shooting. and we will be speaking with congress member ellison. leslie redmond is a student at the university of st. thomas school of law and president of the black law student association. we welcome you to democracy now! can you start off by saying what happened to them nights ago? >> yes, thank you for having me. basically, two nights ago i came out, everything was fine, people were socializing, eating, just communing as normal. then a police officer comes and pokes his head over the precinct walls. this was a night unlike any other night. i have been out since sunday every night. this sunday had on a ski mask similar to the gunmen. he poked his head around, looked at the scene, so was going on.

less than 30 minutes after this officer with this ski mask that was poking his head over the precinct, these gunmen show up who at the time, we did not know who they were. they had on ski masks. we don't allow people to have on ski masks anymore because of the threats we have been getting, numerous black lives matter represent it is, naacp had have received death threats. so we have just been taking precautions when it comes to who is coming to the precinct. a number of african-american males went over to the guys and basically asked them, what are you doing here? if you want to be here, you have to take off the gas. the african-american males proceeded to walk them away. my new, these are our heroes because there was a child that was three years old, another child that was eight years old, right beside me. we were less than 25 feet away from the gunman who would have known -- who knows what they would have done? heroes, the general and that got shot, the people that got maced, the people that

walked them away. it almost seemed like it was they were luring them down the street away so the police officers could say they did not see me thing. when in actuality, they heard the shots just like i heard the shots. there were over 10 shots fired. the police officers didn't do anything. it seemed like they could of been in cahoots. they just locked. i told someone to move the three-year-old and the eight-year-old child back toward the wall. then i was on the phone with the head of the naacp criminal justice committee. i was telling him what happened. you want to me to confirm, get someone -- did someone get shot? i wanted to confirm myself but i was extremely nervous because i did not know if the gunman was still shooting. nevertheless, i was courageous and i went and i saw one person wounded, shot and their leg. another person wounded on the thend with a gun wound to stomach. everyone was going crazy trying to figure out what was going on.

i did not realize three other people had been wounded. they had transportation come and get them. at this point, it is like 15 minutes has passed. no police officers have come out lances.lance ambu i just seen an officer over the wall with ski masks on. i moved the kids for the tocinct building. i told him take them to the car because the police officers were just standing there doing nothing. i felt we were in danger, as if there was a war going on in her own backyard. they took the kids to the car. i heard one of the police officer say, "there taken the kids to the car." they know what is going on and have no intention of helping us. the police cars started to come up. like 20 police officers with their guns went running into the crowd. you would think they were running to help the witnesses, but instead, they started to mace the witnesses, push them back. they did not ask for any eye testimonies, no anything until

maybe after an hour after everything had transpired. the way they treated the peaceful protesters and the way they did not come and help and even yesterday i was at the hospital with one of the guys who got shot, cameron clark, all night, and they said -- he said they just left him for dead. people and protect the thanks you get his police basically tell you, this is what you ask for? you say the gunman, and you do group of people trying to escort them out, were they brandishing the guns or to chew later find out when the shooting started that they were armed? >> correct. i later found out they were gunmen. at the time, all we knew is that they had on ski masks. they had a bag in her hand and a couple of -- in their hand and a couple of signs in her head. i don't know what was in the bag. hadave no idea what they planned.

amy: i want to turn to a video where masked men are seen driving to the jamar clark protest site and brandishing a --stal while making racist brandishing a pistol, while making racist comments. the men in the video identify themselves by the aliases saigamarine and blackpowderranger. it's still unclear if they were connected to monday evening's shooting. this is an excerpt from the video. >> yes, we are locked and loaded. >> you have a gun? [laughter] >> why do you hate freedom? >> because. i don't know. >> check it out. we are going to be driving down there. it will take us about 10 minutes to get down there. we're going to take a little while and shut the camera off in a little bit. we just want to give everyone a heads up. we're going to knock this [bleep] out and see what they're doing. fighting police and fighting paramedics is good enough to let you off with a slap on the wrist, especially when you go

for an officer's weapon. so, yeah, a little reverse cultural enriching. men are wearing masks. they are spotted later at the justice for jamar clark protest on in an activist-shot video, thursday. the men seem to respond sarcastically to questions regarding police brutality. this is an excerpt, beginning with the activist asking blackpowderranger a question. >> the situation is the impetus of why you're here, what does it look like for you, for the community? what do think it means to find justice for jamar clark? >> get the justice and peace they deserve. what we really need to do is reach out to our communities, our militant-enriched communities. amy: i want to turn to the communications of the naacp, suggesting members of law-enforcement were behind the shooting of the black lives matter protesters monday night.

>> we know the police department is behind this. this is our personal belief after we have received witnesses accounts, he personally being on the ground, minneapolis police department union had -- >> i have to interrupt you, i know there is a delay but you say you believe the police department is behind what? what's we believe the police department is this a locating to the protesters and we also believe there are involved in this shooting. we know from blackboards and chat rooms and also videos that we have posted on our website that police from different districts have come down to entice the protesters, have come down -- >> i understand your in minneapolis and you know much more about this, but those are serious allegations you're just laying down on national television. behindwe are standing

it. we do not back down from these allegations most of amy: that is russia williams of the naacp and indianapolis. arrested,le have been three of these men. >> the police came from the same areas that the gunman fled into. like i said, they took their precious time. i agree with her. i di not grow up in household that i was scared of police. i note that is a lot of african-americans in america lifestyle and basically their experience, but i grew up in washington, d.c. i had uncles that were police officers, cousins that were police officers. i looked at these people to protect and serve. what i've been seeing over the past week, i would not put anything past the police officers. i was out there when they were shooting us with rubber bullets, when they were throwing tear gas for no reason -- literally, we were peaceful, do not believe

what the media sees you. no one was tuning the thing to those officers. when i was on the ground and saw those police officers come over the precinct for the first time with ski masks on, they looked exactly like the people that ended up being the gunman. it is like, how do not make the correlation? when they did not come to help these men, it seems like they were in cahoots. i cannot say for sure i know they did it, but the believe is there and the people who were there we definitely feel like the police definitely could've had something to do with it. in addition, the gentle man who got shot with the same want who were in the front lines of the protest out there every day with the police officers, telling them they were doing injustice. i don't think those are all coincidence is. , how arelie redmond the people who are wounded doing? one of them is the cousin of jamar clark, the man whose death you were protesting? >> yes. cameron clark is the cousin -- i actually went to the hospital

about 2:00 a.m. and i stayed until probably 5:30 p.m. until he was released because we did not want to leave him there by himself just because of all of these shady things that have been going on. cameron is in really good spirits. he was shot twice, once in the leg and once in the foot. he went to the protest yesterday evening against my better judgment. i told him he should go get some rest. he really is passionate about this. he did not want to leave his brothers and sisters out there. he did not want the government and police to think that they had one because we think this was a plot to try to get us to go away. we want them to know we are only coming out stronger because we are standing on the side of justice, the right side of history. these people who were shot our heroes of society. the other individuals that got shot had to go into surgery. there are hospitalized, for my understanding. cameron was released. amy: leslie redmond, thank you for being with us, eyewitness to monday evening's shooting in

minnesota black lives matter student at the university of st. , thomas school of law and president of the black law student association. weird one to go to break and come right back to speak with minneapolis congressmember keith ellison. his son was at the protest of the killing of jamar clark by police. and now a picture has gone viral of police with a gun directly pointed at jeremiah. stay with us. ♪ [music break]

amy: again, bruce springsteen," american skin: 41 shots." this is democracy now!, democracynow.org, the war and peace report. i'm amy goodman with juan gonzalez. still with us in minneapolis is congressmember keith ellison who is joined the chorus of people

demanding the release of the video of the police killing of 24-year-old african-american jamar clark 10 days ago. authorities say clark was shot and the head after a scuffle with officers who responded to a report of an assault. multiple witnesses say jamar clark was shot while handcuffed. minneapolis police officers mark remembered and dustin short seat have been placed on administrative leave during the investigation. during a police raid last wednesday, an officer dressed in fatigues and carrying what appeared to be a gas launching gun pointed his weapon at congressman ellison's own son jeremiah. the next day, congressman ellison and other elected officials demanded the release of the footage of jamar clark's death. welcome back to democracy now!, congress member ellison. first talk about jamar clark, what we understand happened, what the release of this video would mean and also what happened to your son, not to mention the shooting of these black lives matter protesters. i first reaction when i

saw the picture of jeremiah was for -- horror. i would gladly face whatever dangers are necessary, but having my son face it is another thing. he is a 24-year-old guy. he is a strong passion for justice. it's a professional artist. he doesn't think he needs is dead worrying about him like that, but i can't help it. i remember when he was just a little boy and now he is a grown man. i am actually a little proud he feels this burning desire to stand up for what is right and to make a better society. that that picture was very, very disturbing. we're not going to let it sit there. to shoulder a weapon like that at a nonviolent -- at nonviolent protesters is outrageous. decency,iolation of and we're going to find out whether it is -- amy: who is the officer and why

was he doing it? >> that is a good question. i think he was doing it to intimidate people. i think shouldering a weapon against nonviolent protesters is an aggressive act, is certainly insights and provokes people. and it did not help deescalate the situation at all. and so this is an issue we're going to continue to press. the jeremiah is fine. -- what jeremiah is fine. jamar clark is not fine. his funeral is set for today. the five young men who were shot by these gunmen, these suspicious gunmen, hoover son doesn't some unknown and bizarre reason. they were had to leave or they were, come down to a nonviolent protest and provoke people and then shoot at people when people raise questions about their intentions is just a series of provocations. it is symptomatic -- the issue of racism, injustice,

discrimination, and i think that all they're doing is provoking firm or andand up stronger. as i said, as many times before, you have people standing up for 15 and a union, people standing up for criminal justice reform, people standing up nowadays for climate action, standing up for immigration reform. there is a surge going on across this country among diverse populations craving justice, demanding fair treatment. they might be but a bit of a different issues, but it is the same general thrust. we have to have more just society. you have called for the release of the jamar clark video. we have just in the situation in chicago were officials held on to it and refused to release a key video for 400 days. the importance of the video in

this case in minneapolis? >> let me just say this, the cases are a little different. here is why. the first demand that i made was the demand for an independent investigation by the department of justice, and we got that. the head of the civil rights division of the department of justice agreed to take the case. there have been justice department lawyers out here already. this is somewhat unique because usually, the state case has to lookingfor the federal -- look into violations of federal or criminal civil rights or criminal law. and so the first demand was met early. other demands that have been met have been releasing the names of the officers, briefing -- briefly counseling victims families, and then we've had meetings with the governor. there have been meetings with

the mayor come all talking about redress of not just these direct issues, but the systemic issues that lead to the tragedies like jamar clark's shooting death at the hands of minneapolis police department -- police officers. the tape the main was a demand for transparency. we know in the case of eric garner, walters got, and a whole host of issues, on the scene illuminating very and terms of what actually happened. point, my main concern is the independent investigation. my main concern is that we raise issues about the decision to take the case on the state level to the grand jury. i do not think the proper course of action, concerned about a because we're never seen a grand jury return a true bill of indictment. usually, they just go there to get a no bill.

it would be a good thing to explore this issue because there are a number of cases where -- suspicious cases of an officer involved shooting were the case goes to a grand jury, which is secret, and ends up just being -- the case ends up dying there will stop it allows public officials to not take responsibility for charging the decision. showed a tape again. it is a call for transparency. if an independent, thorough investigation requires that the tape be released after witnesses are all interviewed and if the investigation is not impeded, i think the family and i could live with that -- i practiced law for 20 years. i have done many investigations myself. some people in the federal investigation have indicated that if the tape were immediately released, it would allow certain witnesses, including law enforcement

witnesses, to try to conform their testimony to the tape. that, i think, would not be a good outcome. but as long as we know that this is going to be a transparent, aggressive, independent investigation and the tape will be released immediately, i could live with that. ain, this is very different from the chicago situation where the tape was literally delayed and it had to be a freedom of information act to release the tape. the case had a ready been resolved at the civil level with a $5 million settlement. and the only reason for not releasing the tape is that it was so incredibly provocative. the reason to not immediately release the tape in the situation is to maintain investigative integrity. we know this tape will be released. that particular demand, in my important, critical, and essential, but i think most -- we know we're going to get

that tape. we have been assured of it. i don't think it is going to take long, but i think the priority is an independent investigation. amy: congressmember ellison, you're the first muslim congress member in the u.s. house of representatives. last week, the house passed legislation that was introduced by republican lawmakers to at the moment, stop iraqi and syrian refugees from resettling here in the united states. respond. >> well, it was a piece of legislation motivated by fear, motivated by xenophobia, motivated by irrationality -- look, we've had 750,000 refugees come into this country since 2001. none of them -- not 1 -- has been engaged in terrorism at all . some people will say, what about the tsarnaev brothers? they were radicalized in another way. refugees themselves have not

posed a threat to this country. why, then, read going to revamp our whole refugee resettlement incrediblyich is rigorous in terms of the vetting process, simply because of intimidation from daesh? this is a bad thing to do. daesh operates -- amy: meaning? >> what people refer to as isis, the islamic state. i maintain they are neither islamic nor a state. so i called them daesh. but the point is, they operate under a philosophical underpinning that the west is at war with islam and islam is at war with the west in a defensive posture. this is a completely false narrative. saying, our country is we will take refugees but only if they are christian, we don't one in the iraqis, syrians, are this people muslim and couldn't terrorists be among them? we're helping daesh argue to

people around the world that we don't leave in the values we profess, and that they can make us change our system based on threats. and this is feeding their overall narrative. look, if muslims -- if daesh is providing some sort of islamic state, why are his arms -- muslims running from it? oh, i don't know, what about the rapes and the beheadings. they crave power. sadly, the iraq war which was a fatal mistake from the bush administration, at least some of these ugly forces that now are incredibly difficult to deal with. what we should do is continue to live up to our values. we should maintain law and order . and what i mean by that, is not just shifting the law to dress people from a minority religion, but maintain our posture as a country that is a haven to

refugees. we should not adjust that simply because of fear. what candidates like donald trump are not helping promote safety and national security when they say things like, we should id all the muslims. when they say things like, muslims or arab americans were cheering on 11, it is an absolute lie. people like ben carson calling the refugees rabid dogs? these things are incredibly helpful to daesh and detrimental to refugees and americans. so we have to all, down and have some courage. we have to face this threat in unity and based on values of inclusion, equality under the law, and basic democracy. democracy now!, how about that? amy: congress member keith ellison, thank you for being with us. that does it for the show.

tomorrow we will be playing juan .onzalez's speech will [captioning made possible by democracy now!] ñ

>> the type of world in which our ancestors lived for hundreds of thousands of years, women would probably have 4 to 6 children in a lifetime. half those children would die before they could reproduce, so the only thing we can be sure about in human population studies is that for the last 100,000 years, people on average had 2 children to succeed them, although we were in a population explosion 1,000 years ago. >> in just the last nanosecond